Edmondson Joins Pro-Gun Letter Signers

Attorney General Drew Edmondson is among 23 top law enforcement officials who have signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, expressing opposition to reinstatement of the federal ban on semi-automatic firearms.

"We share the Obama Administration's commitment to reducing illegal drugs and violent crime within the United States," the letter reads. "We also share your deep concern about drug cartel violence in Mexico. However, we do not believe that restricting law-abiding Americans' access to certain semi-automatic firearms will resolve any of these problems."

The letter notes congressional opposition to bringing back the ban, and calls for increasing enforcement of existing laws.

Read the entire letter: http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/SemiAutostateAGsLetter061109.pdf.

Share |

Will Obama Blame This On U. S. Guns, Too?

Canadians who have recently returned from Mexico should be on alert for flu-like symptoms that could be connected to a severe respiratory illness, federal health officials said in issuing a travel advisory.

A severe respiratory illness appears to have infected 137 people in south and central areas of Mexico, with cases concentrated in Mexico City and three other areas, including 20 deaths, the Public Health Agency of Canada said.

Share |

Noted Quote: Obama's Gun Control Agenda

“The idea that American-manufactured firearms are responsible for the growing violence in Mexico isn’t grounded in reality, but the Obama Administration is using this violence as justification to require stricter licensing requirements and markings on firearms by U.S. manufacturers. The majority of the gun violence that is occurring in the drug wars in Mexico is the result of assault weapons, including fully automatic versions, which aren’t even available for sale in the United States. Many of these weapons are coming from other countries in Central and South America and deserters from the Mexican military. I am strongly opposed to placing more stringent requirements on U.S. gun manufacturers, especially when the evidence shows that they are not the problem. This is an instance of the Obama Administration using alternative means to place greater regulations on the manufacture and sale of legal firearms in the United States. I believe that my colleagues in the United States Senate understand this to be the case and will do as they have for the last 10 years and not ratify this treaty (Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials).” ~ U. S. Senator Jim Inhofe

Share |

America's Gun-Buying Spree Continues

From The Christian Science Monitor ~ What do an elderly Oklahoma homeowner, a Virginia Citizen Militia member, and a Texas airline pilot all have in common these days?

They're all part of America's massive gun-and-ammunition buying spree – a national arming-up effort that began before last year's election of President Obama and continues unabated. Across the United States, it has led to shortages of assault-style weapons, rising prices, and a broadening of gun culture to increasingly include older Americans, women and – gasp – liberals.

The causes are varied – from fears over crime, both rational and irrational, to the concern that Second Amendment rights will be curtailed by a Democrat-controlled Washington.

With the stock market deeply uncertain, some buyers simply think guns are a good investment. The run on guns suggests a shift in public attitudes about gun rights, and it presents a snapshot of a country that has historically turned to powder and balls in times of turmoil.

Read it all at http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0413/p02s01-ussc.html.

Share |

Obama's Anti-Gun Slinger: Arne Duncan

He's a product of Chicago's liberal environment, a former professional basketball player known for his one-on-ones with rising Illinois politician Barack Obama.

Commentary By Mike McCarville

Now, at 44, former Chicago Schools Superintendent Arne Duncan is President Obama's choice as Secretary of Education and to that post, he brings a long-standing hostility toward gun ownership by law-abiding citizens and a stated desire to remove firearms from every home in America.

Duncan is viewed by some as part of Obama's stealth campaign to eliminate gun ownership in America. Teamed with Obama's new bureaucrat-in-chief, anti-gunner and wacko animal rights activist Cass Sunstein, Duncan is poised to ramrod an anti-gun agenda in the nation's educational system.

The NRA's flagship magazine, America's 1st Freedom, recently profiled Duncan in an article by well-known 2nd Amendment expert Dave Kopel.

Kopel notes that last October, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (aka the Illinois Council Against Guns) gave Duncan its "Man Of The Year" award. He refused to accept it, saying his fight to ban guns isn't over: "We'll keep fighting the NRA, the gun makers, the gun dealers, the gangbangers aned everyone else who refuses to accept the undeniable fact that guns and kids don't mix."

His statement is an attack on the high school Scholastic Clays Target Program, "gun clubs with small-bore shooting teams for teenagers, and parents who take their children hunting," Kopel writes.

Duncan goes further: "We'll fight them in Springfield, in the courts, in the community and even in the home."

In the home. Duncan wants to bring his radical opposition to firearms ownership and the 2nd Amendment into our homes.

Writes Kopel: "You may ask yourself, 'What can the secretary of education do to prohibit the rights of law-abiding gun owners?' To begin with, he can incessantly and hysterically use his bully pulpit to promote repressive gun control as an absolute necessity 'for the children.' That's what he did as superintendent of Chicago public schools."

Duncan believes in his radical approach: "This is a public health epidemic. We are struggling to find the cure for AIDS, we are struggling to find the cure for cancer; we know the cure for this public health epidemic: getting rid of guns."

Among Duncan's running mates are the extremist Catholic priest Michael Pfleger, whose statement that a Chicago gun dealer should be "snuffed out" brought censorship from his bishop; Mayor Richard Daley, who presides over a city with stringent gun control and one of the worse crime rates in the nation; and notorious gun-grabber Jesse Jackson.

Concludes Kopel: "There is every reason to be concerned that Duncan will turn the Department of Education into a tool to promote a gun-ban agenda in America's public schools. And we can fully expect that the 'mainstream' media, which was so viciously hostile to the Bush administration, will fawn over Duncan's public demands to repress the Second Amendment 'for the children.'"

Share |

Congressional Democrats Oppose Obama Gun Ban

Sixty-five House Democrats said Wednesday that they would oppose any attempt by the Obama administration to revive a ban on military-style weapons that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994 and President George W. Bush let expire.

The pro-gun Democrats, led by Congressman Mike Ross, D-Arkansas, wrote Attorney General Eric Holder that they would "actively oppose any effort to reinstate the 1994 ban, or to pass any similar law."

They urged the administration to avoid a "long and divisive fight over a gun control issue" at a time when Washington needs to concentrate on the economic crisis.

The House letter came a day after Montana's two Democratic senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, wrote a similar letter to Holder saying the Justice Department should enforce existing laws before considering new gun ownership restrictions.

"We will strongly oppose any legislation that will infringe upon the rights of individual gun owners," they said.

The letters came after Holder, during a news conference to announce the arrest of Mexican drug dealers, said the drug cartels were obtaining high-powered weapons like the AK-47 from U.S. gun stores and said the Obama administration supported reinstituting the ban on the sale of assault-style weapons.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said she plans to introduce legislation to bring back the weapons ban. Feinstein was an author of the 1994 bill, which banned 19 types of semiautomatic, military-style guns. The law expired under the Bush administration in 2004. Another long-term goal is requiring that all gun shows conduct background checks before selling firearms.

The National Rifle Association has said it is mobilizing to stop any assault weapons ban, and the opposition of 65 House Democrats, many from rural or conservative districts with strong pro-gun sentiments, probably would doom any legislative drive to restrict gun ownership.

Already this year, Republicans have stalled legislation that would give the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House by linking the bill to a measure significantly weakening D.C.'s gun laws.

House Democratic leaders have put off a vote on the voting rights bill out of concern that pro-gun Democrats would oppose it if it is separated from the gun measure.

Share |

Boren To Obama: Back Off Gun Control Agenda

Washington ~ The Second Amendment Task Force (SATF) of the U.S. House of Representatives, Co-Chaired by U.S. Congressman Dan Boren and U.S. Congressman Paul Broun, issued a letter this week to both President Obama and House Speaker Pelosi in opposition to any future attempt to reinstate a ban on the sale of semiautomatic firearms, described by some as assault weapons.

Recent comments made by the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder, prompted the SATF to send the letter to House Leadership and the Administration saying that any attempt to reinstate such a ban would be absolutely unacceptable and in violation of the Second Amendment.

“As Co-Chair for the Second Amendment Task Force, I am absolutely opposed to targeting lawful gun ownership in any way especially when it entails renewing a failed policy that demonstrated no tangible impact on reducing crime in the United States. As law abiding gun owners, sportsmen, American citizens, and Members of Congress, we firmly believe that one of many responsibilities with which the American people have entrusted government is to protect their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” said Boren.

“Today, the Second Amendment Task Force sent a unified and clear message to the Administration and House leadership expressing our grave concerns with any attempt to reinstate the inaccurately described ‘assault weapons’ ban. As co-chair of SATF, we will block attempts that chip away at our constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. I urge the Attorney General to revisit his comments about reinstating the ban and instead focus on providing law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to prevent the illegal use and transfer of firearms,” said Congressman Paul Broun.

Although advocates of reinstating the ban argue it would reduce crime, studies have shown that deaths related to the use of assault weapons showed negligible difference during the ten-year period while the ban was in place. Furthermore, though the words “assault weapons” conjure images of a specific style of firearm, in fact the weapons outlawed by the original ban functioned the same as any semiautomatic, fully legal hunting rifle.

The Second Amendment Task Force was formed this year in the House to monitor how any legislation might affect gun ownership rights and to give gun owners a strong and focused voice in the 111th Congress.

Share |

Obama's Gun Control Agenda Targets Pilots

UPDATE: Officials deny the substance of this story, saying there has been no effort to end the armed pilot program. While some pilots insist it is so, officials in the FAA and elsewhere say the diversion of funds for the program is temporary.

The Obama administration is taking steps quietly to shut down the program that qualifies commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in jetliner cockpits in order to ward off another 9/11-type attack.

The administration recently diverted $2 million from a program to train and certify pilots to carry firearms safely while on duty. Instead, it is using the money to hire additional field inspectors to help discipline pilots who step out of line, according to a report in the Washington Times.

A Times editorial condemned the Obama administration's action, calling it “completely unnecessary harassment of the pilots.”

Since Obama took office, the approval process for certifying pilots to carry firearms has ground to a halt, the newspaper reports. Pilots are afraid to speak out about the behind-the-scenes maneuverings, for fear of retaliation, according to the newspaper. No cases have been reported in which pilots have brandished a weapon inappropriately or otherwise abused their eligibility to carry firearms.

About 12,000 pilots have been authorized to carry handguns while flying aircraft as part of the Federal Flight Deck Officers Program. Congress authorized the program in a 310-to-113 vote following the 9/11 attacks to help prevent terrorists from turning jetliners into flying bombs that could be used to attack key sites like the White House, the Pentagon, or Capitol Hill.

Read more at www.newsmax.com.

Share |